One night in the grocery store
by liliaeth
Summary: A Sunnydale night from the pov of a grocery clerk


Title: One night at the grocery store  
Author:Lore  
Rating: PG 13  
Summary: A regular Sunnydale Night seen from the grocery clerk's pov  
Notes: Buffy/Spike ficathon fic for **darkjosh**

Working in Simmons' All Night Groceries, his father had told him when he first started, was as good as being on death row. There was a reason why the damn job, normally held by high school students after hours was so well paid. And still old man Simmons wouldn't just close the shop at night. Too busy counting his money, to notice how many of his employees went missing. Tonight could well be his turn.

Glenn recognized the type, all dressed in black, a style years out of date all combined with pale skin. Anywhere else, he'd say Goth, here… probably vampire. And if he had any doubts left the lack of reflection would have given it away.  
He'd worked here for five years, longer than anyone else in this shift, and he hadn't done so by being a hero. More honestly, the only reason he was still alive was because he was a coward. A paranoid coward.  
He'd seen dozens of kids come and go in this place. All rash, impatient, wanting to get to places and thinking this was just a short detour in their life. Most of them ended up either victims of animal attacks, others … well they'd come back, or tried to… with the same pale complexion that the punk in his store had. One of them had wrecked the place, still stinking of grave dust as he tried to get revenge for whatever the moron thought he'd done him wrong. Not his fault there'd been a monster waiting in the back alley, when he'd sent him out for the trash. He'd gotten rid of him, a spray can of holy water under the counter, and a stake right beneath his register had taken care of him all too easily.  
He might be a coward, but he wasn't stupid.

He warned every kid that came in here, telling them about the death rate, warning them to take a safer job, during daytime, warning them to wear a cross… They all thought he was the crazy kook that the owners couldn't get rid off. What more was he supposed to do. Not like he was their keeper?

The punk stopped to pick up a pack of mints, his eyes on a girl. She was cute, really. Smallish, blond, sad green eyes. The vampire's eyes stayed on her as she moved through the store. He wanted to warn her, yell at her to run for it, that he'd take care of the predator before he could attack her. But … he didn't. He just stood there.  
The vampire grabbed a cart and started throwing some stuff in: breakfast cereal, meat, vegetables. A part of Glenn wondered how long it'd take to put it back. The girl looked at him, rolling her eyes.  
"No Spike."

"But."

"No. No way, no how, no."

"The nibblet needs it. What? Do you want to send her to bed hungry just because you're being stubborn as hell?"

"I can't take your money Spike and I can't pay for that. Put it back."  
She turned away from him. Glenn felt sorry for her; her boyfriend had probably just died and she didn't even know it yet.

"Oh come on. I'll even pay for it."

"Pay? With whose money? Is that Xander's wallet again?"

The vampire stared at her and seemed to pout. Did vampires pout? Well this one did. Glenn watched him as he walked after the girl. Insisting to pay for it, to have her take whatever she wanted. She was dead set to refuse any of his cash.  
Glenn didn't know how to take it that the vamp didn't even seem to consider forcing her.  
"And no Spike, I'm not taking your poker winnings either. How many cats got eaten for that? "

"Just a couple."… he said it so … self-evident., she groaned in disgust.  
Glenn fought the smile that was crawling on his lips.

"Buffy…"

The doors slammed open. Three big blue 'what the fuck hell where they' entered the shop. Glenn took a deep breath. He'd had demon customers before. Some of them like that big flabby skinned one called Clem were actually rather nice, once you get to know them. Others… Not so much with the nice.  
They stared around the store, eying the merchandise as well as him, the girl and the vampire.  
"Scram it bloodrat!"

The vampire seemed to grow in size, even though he was actually rather scrawny. An air of menace escaped him as he faced up to the three ugly ass demons. The girl kept looking at the tomatoes before taking out two and carefully placing them in a plastic bag. Glenn started grabbing for his gun, a third weapon under the counter, but tried to do so without the demons noticing him.  
He might be a coward, but he was no fool.

The demon looked at the girl and licked his lips.  
"Tasty." He said. The vampire growled at his words.  
Glenn could see the girl twitched her nose at the display as she was facing in his direction. He didn't think the demons could see it though. If they could… Glenn was starting to think that if they could have seen her, they'd have ran for cover. One of the demons grabbed the vampire; he kicked him off, the second one jumped at the girl. She stopped him and kicked him down, forcing him to the ground before she kneeled down next to him and twisted his neck.

"Nice job, Slayer."

She looked at the demon the vampire had just killed. Both of them turned to the third with a weird kind of hunger in their eyes. The demon stared at the both of them, looked from left to right and ran for the hills.  
The vampire and the girl, the slayer, looked at one another and started laughing. The two demons started sliming up. Glenn was not looking forward to the clean up. Far from it.

The vampire grabbed the cart again.  
"No Spike, you know I can't. I know you mean well, but I can't take stolen money"

"Then what do you want me to do Slayer? Get a bleeding job? Don't know if you've noticed pet, but I can't really go out in daylight to earn me a living. I'm dead, I don't …."

Glenn went up to him and handed him a mop. Without saying a word. The vampire stared at him in shock.  
"Eight till four, 10$ an hour, five days a week, two weekends every month. And I won't ask your ID."  
The vampire, Spike, stared at him in shock. Glenn smiled at the weirdness of it all.  
"Starting now."  
The vampire held on to the mop as if not sure what to do with it.  
"And your girlfriend can take the groceries as your first paycheck."  
Spike took off his coat, put it on the counter and stared at the mop a second. Glenn gave him a bucket and the vampire started cleaning up the mess from the demons.

She stared at them both, wanting to say something. Glenn didn't let her, putting the stuff in bags and adding some candy to it as well, seemed like she'd need it. He pushed the bag towards her. She stared at the bags, at the vampire, and a small smile lit her face. A hint of tenderness in her eyes. No. Glenn was a coward, but he wasn't stupid. With all the people working here ending up dead sooner or later, he might as well hire someone who was already dead….  


fin

  



End file.
